04-13-2023 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 50
Describing a college-reunion encounter
with a particularly pompous classmate, Paris
writes:
Emilie thought for a second. Maybe, just
maybe, hearing about what she’d been through
would shut him up. “Well,” she said, “in
February, my husband died, and tonight we’re
going to shoot his ashes off in a bottle rocket.”
B.T.’s mouth fell agape. He placed a hand on
the back of his neck and shifted his stance.
It worked. Emilie’s comments rendered B.T.
speechless — albeit momentarily. He stared at
her for a second or two before uttering, “Oh,
okay. Well, hmm. I didn’t know your husband
had died. I’m sorry. Bottle rockets. Cool. That’s
nice, I guess.”
For a minute, Emilie thought she had made
history with B.T., but the moment was soon
lost when he added, “When my father died last
year, the Governor proclaimed June fourteenth
as Brian Thomas Nelson Senior Day.”
As Emilie goes to spin classes and hangs
out in cat cafes, she works through her grief
with the help of a therapist, and tentatively
begins dating again, notching her share of
less-than-optimal encounters.
Paris, an executive assistant with the
American Psychological Association, is
a witty and perceptive writer who gives
Emilie and her supportive friends a realistic
complement of neuroses and silliness. They
Google-stalk one date, only for Emilie to
find out that the super-hot online photo is
several years removed from the considerably
sparser-haired man she meets in real life.
Because it is a romance, “New Normal”
has a happy ending. Paris also has a rom-com
conclusion to her own dating life. In 2020
she married again after meeting her future
husband, Kevin Porter, through a dating app.
Though they hit it off right away and
dated for six years, there was at least one
rom-com-worthy twist.
“When I met him, I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh,
I could talk to this guy forever.’ You know,
like, the very first night we met,” says Paris.
“And then he ghosted me for two weeks. And
so I deleted his contact. But it turned out he
was out of town and he got back in touch.”
“New Normal” will be published on May 2
by Apprentice House Press. The Baltimorebased book publisher, run by Loyola
University Maryland students, accepts 15%
of the submissions it receives each year, says
Kevin Atticks, director of Apprentice House.
“We love Michelle’s book because of how
engaged and invested readers become with
the main character.”
It’s a big payoff for the author after over a
decade of writing her heart out.
“I likened the publishing process to
putting myself out there, dating. You need
calluses on your heart,” Paris says. “I won’t
say I didn’t shed tears, but I thought, these
people don’t know me. If they met me, they
would give me a chance.”
Paris believes writing about her grief
helped her imagine a happy future for
herself, and she hopes the book will have the
same effect on others.
“What I really wanted when my first
husband died was for someone to say it’s
going to be okay,” she says.
Meet the author
Michelle Paris, author of“New Normal,”
will be holding a book-signing at the
Barnes & Noble in Ellicott City on May 6
at 1 p.m.
“New Normal” is available for purchase
online at Apprentice House Press and
where books are sold.
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| Spring 2023 | howardmagazine.com